How to Buy a Kia Stinger

Get out of my car last night at the grocery store and a brand new Stinger pulls up! Nice timing! GT1 as it turns out. Guy tells me he got a great deal on it (yah, sure...). In reality he did. $46,XXX (AWD GT1), and landed on just over $40k!!! He mentioned a $5300 rebate...

Something wasn't adding up.How is this possible?

Well, I did some homework last night. He DIDN'T purchase - rather, he leased it for 36 months and the dealer gave him all $5300 in lease cash and a bit more on their side of the coin.

AutoByTel shows all the lease cash options dealers have to use to get you into a lease - and it's a LOT! However, that program expired on 01.02.18 - last night! AutoByTel now only shows the military $400. There will be a new incentive for the month/s coming out very soon so check back, and if you are leasing, check out the 36/48 month terms - and work to get ALL that lease cash the dealer has to work with. And THEN get another $2k or so off and you'll end up with a pretty sweet lease deal.

What I can recall from last night is the following (other websites also verify the program that expired last night was valid:

I also looked at a purchase of a base model and a few others for purchase, and discovered the dealers were getting a Factory-to-Dealer rebate/cash of $750 to play with.

The GT1 AWD also has a holdback figure of $725. That's about 2.9% of the MSRP. I'm not sure if the holdback figure is 2.9% or just a flat $725 for any Stinger (likely the latter).

Reading MORE last night, dealers are really being pushed into a volume play. Ford is moving away from the programs, but really, the market of car manufactures are having dealers move to just selling numbers, and if they hit the bonus number at month or quarter's end, they can get $150k - $300k in sales target money. A company that can move 200+ a month in vehicles can get this type of big money.

The game for us buyers is pretty much the same (some tips most know, but maybe some don't?...):

- NEVER start with MSRP, Invoice - nothing. Just tell them, "Hey, whatever, Dealer Invoice vs Dealer Cost, Rebates, the bottom line is we need to work together to get me in this car, so let's talk." Dealers will like the "team play" as they will think they have a patsy.

– ALWAYS know the "Invoice." Which is different than "Dealer Cost" but that's a different story.

– ALWAYS know the Factory to Customer Rebate and suggest you start with what the dealer can do with the price, WITHOUT any rebates of any kind, as those are from the factory, so once we are done, we add those in at the end (they cost the dealer nothing).

– ALWAYS know the Factory to Dealer rebate. If you don't, they might give you $2500 off and you might think that's really great. But what you didn't know is $1500 of that $2500 discount was from Kia Corporate. The dealer just took off $1k and you could have had $2k from just the dealer, and another $1500 from the Factory to Dealer money.

– ALWAYS know the holdback money (Stinger $725).

– ALWAYS know their loyalty cash or Conquest Cash (if you have a Hyundai/Kia product or car they are targeting and you own it). No, you don't need to sell or trade in that car, it's just the type of owner Kia is going after and they'll give $ to get you into a Kia.

– WORK WITH A LARGE DEALER - IF POSSIBLE: Smaller dealers are getting squeezed out of the volume monthly/quarterly bonus game car manufacturers are offering. Thus, the smaller dealer is less likely to be able to sell cars at cost or even a loss in some cases, as they won't make it up with a big bonus check at the end of the month. Smaller dealers are more likely to need to make a bit of money on every car they sell. Large dealers can go lower per vehicle sold (more on this below).

– TRY to find out how many cars that dealer sells a given month. If they are around 150 - 200 that's perfect! Stop by and talk to a few different sales guys/gals, or the fleet manager to get this information. You'll get an idea pretty quickly.

– WHEN TO BUY: Going in the last day might not be so effective anymore... If a dealer made "200" sales that month, and you walk in the last day of the month thinking you'll get the deal of a century, think again. The dealer made their bonus money from the factory already, thus they won't cut you a screaming deal anymore. They'd rather you come in the first day of the following month or quarter and buy then. Conversely, if the dealer isn't going to come close to 200 in the last few days of the month, they won't cut you a deal either, because they didn't hit the bonus sales figure, and thus won't be giving away cars to try and make it. The dealer would rather hold you off and start anew the following month to start off volumes sales in earnest. Strategies of "when" to buy are car are changing.

– NEVER mention the holdback money (they hate people that do that), but when you've reached the limit to where you can go, try for another $500. Holdback cash is the LAST thing they'll let you pry out of their cold icy fingers. ; )

– LASTLY (perhaps should have been "firstly"), when the dealer asks what else you are looking at, don't mention OTHER Kia Stinger from another Kia dealer!!! Rather, pick 2 or 3 other diverse cars. It makes it much more unlikely the Kia dealers is owned and/or works closely with these other dealerships, if at all. They protect one another with back-channel calls - which they absolutely do! When I go to buy a Kia Stinger, I'll likely let them know when they ask, I'm looking at a
Buick Regal Sportback, a 2018 Mazda 6 Turbo, and and Ford Fusion or Honda Accord... Different, cheaper cars, from different manufacturers. This will put considerable pricing pressure on them.

– LASTLY PART II: Never volunteer information if they don't ask. The more you talk, the more ammo you give them against you end game to get the car you want and give them as little as possible for it. If you don't mind paying more for a car, then let me ask you, do you ever over-pay taxes just because?... Yah, it's that bad. It's a product and you should always want to pay as little as you can for it. And you can do so in a nice way also.

– LASTLY PART III: I do all my initial shopping via emails to the dealers. You can quickly weed out non-aggressive dealers quickly and save a lot of time!

Okay, my $.02 or $.03 worth. Good hunting!

Can't wait to see what type of incentives Kia delivers for the Stinger this fall!

Get out of my car last night at the grocery store and a brand new Stinger pulls up! Nice timing! GT1 as it turns out. Guy tells me he got a great deal on it (yah, sure...). In reality he did. $46,XXX (AWD GT1), and landed on just over $40k!!! He mentioned a $5300 rebate...

Something wasn't adding up.How is this possible?

Well, I did some homework last night. He DIDN'T purchase - rather, he leased it for 36 months and the dealer gave him all $5300 in lease cash and a bit more on their side of the coin.

AutoByTel shows all the lease cash options dealers have to use to get you into a lease - and it's a LOT! However, that program expired on 01.02.18 - last night! AutoByTel now only shows the military $400. There will be a new incentive for the month/s coming out very soon so check back, and if you are leasing, check out the 36/48 month terms - and work to get ALL that lease cash the dealer has to work with. And THEN get another $2k or so off and you'll end up with a pretty sweet lease deal.

What I can recall from last night is the following (other websites also verify the program that expired last night was valid:

I also looked at a purchase of a base model and a few others for purchase, and discovered the dealers were getting a Factory-to-Dealer rebate/cash of $750 to play with.

The GT1 AWD also has a holdback figure of $725. That's about 2.9% of the MSRP. I'm not sure if the holdback figure is 2.9% or just a flat $725 for any Stinger (likely the latter).

Reading MORE last night, dealers are really being pushed into a volume play. Ford is moving away from the programs, but really, the market of car manufactures are having dealers move to just selling numbers, and if they hit the bonus number at month or quarter's end, they can get $150k - $300k in sales target money. A company that can move 200+ a month in vehicles can get this type of big money.

The game for us buyers is pretty much the same (some tips most know, but maybe some don't?...):

- NEVER start with MSRP, Invoice - nothing. Just tell them, "Hey, whatever, Dealer Invoice vs Dealer Cost, Rebates, the bottom line is we need to work together to get me in this car, so let's talk." Dealers will like the "team play" as they will think they have a patsy.

– ALWAYS know the "Invoice." Which is different than "Dealer Cost" but that's a different story.

– ALWAYS know the Factory to Customer Rebate and suggest you start with what the dealer can do with the price, WITHOUT any rebates of any kind, as those are from the factory, so once we are done, we add those in at the end (they cost the dealer nothing).

– ALWAYS know the Factory to Dealer rebate. If you don't, they might give you $2500 off and you might think that's really great. But what you didn't know is $1500 of that $2500 discount was from Kia Corporate. The dealer just took off $1k and you could have had $2k from just the dealer, and another $1500 from the Factory to Dealer money.

– ALWAYS know the holdback money (Stinger $725).

– ALWAYS know their loyalty cash or Conquest Cash (if you have a Hyundai/Kia product or car they are targeting and you own it). No, you don't need to sell or trade in that car, it's just the type of owner Kia is going after and they'll give $ to get you into a Kia.

– WORK WITH A LARGE DEALER - IF POSSIBLE: Smaller dealers are getting squeezed out of the volume monthly/quarterly bonus game car manufacturers are offering. Thus, the smaller dealer is less likely to be able to sell cars at cost or even a loss in some cases, as they won't make it up with a big bonus check at the end of the month. Smaller dealers are more likely to need to make a bit of money on every car they sell. Large dealers can go lower per vehicle sold (more on this below).

– TRY to find out how many cars that dealer sells a given month. If they are around 150 - 200 that's perfect! Stop by and talk to a few different sales guys/gals, or the fleet manager to get this information. You'll get an idea pretty quickly.

– WHEN TO BUY: Going in the last day might not be so effective anymore... If a dealer made "200" sales that month, and you walk in the last day of the month thinking you'll get the deal of a century, think again. The dealer made their bonus money from the factory already, thus they won't cut you a screaming deal anymore. They'd rather you come in the first day of the following month or quarter and buy then. Conversely, if the dealer isn't going to come close to 200 in the last few days of the month, they won't cut you a deal either, because they didn't hit the bonus sales figure, and thus won't be giving away cars to try and make it. The dealer would rather hold you off and start anew the following month to start off volumes sales in earnest. Strategies of "when" to buy are car are changing.

– NEVER mention the holdback money (they hate people that do that), but when you've reached the limit to where you can go, try for another $500. Holdback cash is the LAST thing they'll let you pry out of their cold icy fingers. ; )

– LASTLY (perhaps should have been "firstly"), when the dealer asks what else you are looking at, don't mention OTHER Kia Stinger from another Kia dealer!!! Rather, pick 2 or 3 other diverse cars. It makes it much more unlikely the Kia dealers is owned and/or works closely with these other dealerships, if at all. They protect one another with back-channel calls - which they absolutely do! When I go to buy a Kia Stinger, I'll likely let them know when they ask, I'm looking at a
Buick Regal Sportback, a 2018 Mazda 6 Turbo, and and Ford Fusion or Honda Accord... Different, cheaper cars, from different manufacturers. This will put considerable pricing pressure on them.

– LASTLY PART II: Never volunteer information if they don't ask. The more you talk, the more ammo you give them against you end game to get the car you want and give them as little as possible for it. If you don't mind paying more for a car, then let me ask you, do you ever over-pay taxes just because?... Yah, it's that bad. It's a product and you should always want to pay as little as you can for it. And you can do so in a nice way also.

– LASTLY PART III: I do all my initial shopping via emails to the dealers. You can quickly weed out non-aggressive dealers quickly and save a lot of time!

Okay, my $.02 or $.03 worth. Good hunting!

Can't wait to see what type of incentives Kia delivers for the Stinger this fall!

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There's a lot of good advice there. Thank you for posting this up. I know there are going to be sales people who don't like this information but there's a bright side. If you can move a car, even if you don't make a lot on the deal, spending hardly any time with the customer - it can't be a bad thing. I mean - if you make a lot of spend a lot of time - that's probably normal. But if you can make a little, and spend a tiny bit of time - then there's more time to earn from more customers. I mean - if you could move 20 cars per day - even if you don't make a lot of money on each sale - I'm sure there's enough in incentives and bonuses to make a good living...

Dealers have to give you the full rebate, there is no advantage to holding rebate money.

Also, there is much more hold back than $725.

Holdback on the Stinger is likely to be between 1200-1500. But good luck getting into that. The Stinger is extremely hot and quantities are limited. If you're just looking for the best deal, wait until the 2019 model comes out, then find a leftover 2018, if there are any.

Dealers have to give you the full rebate, there is no advantage to holding rebate money.

Also, there is much more hold back than $725.

Holdback on the Stinger is likely to be between 1200-1500. But good luck getting into that. The Stinger is extremely hot and quantities are limited. If you're just looking for the best deal, wait until the 2019 model comes out, then find a leftover 2018, if there are any.

FYI, I'm a new car manager at a Kia dealer.

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Well welcome aboard! And thank you for signing up. Thank you for the insight! What do you drive?

The Stinger is a phenomenal vehicle! My background was high end, European cars. My former co-workers are a little concerned, and they should be!

The only drawback is convincing "badge" buyers to drive a Kia.

Kia has really stepped up their game. I feel very fortunate to be a part of this exciting new chapter for Kia!

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Your former co-workers should certainly be concerned. Things like this can help change an industry. Lexus changed an industry by building high quality, reliable luxury cars for a great price. Kia is now doing the same. Furthermore, the Stinger is being compared directly to the Audi S5 Sportback and BMW 440i Gran Coupe - but it COULD be more closely compared with the Audi S7 and Porsche Panamera...

Your former co-workers should certainly be concerned. Things like this can help change an industry. Lexus changed an industry by building high quality, reliable luxury cars for a great price. Kia is now doing the same. Furthermore, the Stinger is being compared directly to the Audi S5 Sportback and BMW 440i Gran Coupe - but it COULD be more closely compared with the Audi S7 and Porsche Panamera...

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Ok now.....I'm a big fan of the Stinger and can't wait to buy a GT2, but there's no way I would hold it up to a S7 or Panamera. Those platforms have way more features, performance and finish quality even if they are more money. But I do hope Kia/Hyundai can figure out how to break free like Acura, Infinity and Lexus.

Dealers have to give you the full rebate, there is no advantage to holding rebate money.

Also, there is much more hold back than $725.

Holdback on the Stinger is likely to be between 1200-1500. But good luck getting into that. The Stinger is extremely hot and quantities are limited. If you're just looking for the best deal, wait until the 2019 model comes out, then find a leftover 2018, if there are any.

FYI, I'm a new car manager at a Kia dealer.

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I've noticed some dealerships are offering GT2s for thousands less than MSRP (think the most I've seen is 7k less). Is this just a tactic to get people in the door or are they really allowing you guys to go that low?

I've noticed some dealerships are offering GT2s for thousands less than MSRP (think the most I've seen is 7k less). Is this just a tactic to get people in the door or are they really allowing you guys to go that low?

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That's if you lease. That rebate will not apply when you finance the vehicle. What's deceiving is that they aren't being clear about that information until you get there...so to answer your question, yes it is a tactic to get you in.

That's if you lease. That rebate will not apply when you finance the vehicle. What's deceiving is that they aren't being clear about that information until you get there...so to answer your question, yes it is a tactic to get you in.

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That's just crazy smh. I figured it had to be something like that though. That should be illegal.

Ok now.....I'm a big fan of the Stinger and can't wait to buy a GT2, but there's no way I would hold it up to a S7 or Panamera. Those platforms have way more features, performance and finish quality even if they are more money.

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When all is said and done the Audi S7 and Porsche Panamera are better products but performance-wise - they're even. For now, it doesn't make financial sense for Kia to match quality because they can't demand the kind of money it would take to earn a proper investment under the Kia brand...

Edit/delete ........... If you're just looking for the best deal, wait until the 2019 model comes out, then find a leftover 2018, if there are any.

FYI, I'm a new car manager at a Kia dealer.

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@yourKiainsider - thanks for the heads up. Question; When in the 3rd quarter do orders go to KIA for 2019 Stingers? Historically, I've ordered vehicles for cash purchase in front of the up coming new-model-year negotiating a sizable discount. Basically a short deal. As an aside, the Stinger for MY19 may have substantial trunk money, etc.

I'm not in the market until the fall... Since it launched around November in the US, I am not clear on when the 2019 model year will arrive? I assume most companies procedures lock them into roughly the same timelines, so I'll likely:
A. Get a 2018 for the best deal I can find (GT w/Safety Tech Pkg)
B. 2019 GT

That is where this will get interesting. What will they change between the models, and will Kia offer a few features standalone or?...

I wish the Blind Spot came as standard with Premium or on all GT's... And the Heads Up Display. That thing rocks! Would love to see that as a $500 or so upgrade to any model...